A CITY APOLOGISES TO FORGOTTEN DEAD

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25364, 11 December 1947, Page 6

A CITY APOLOGISES TO FORGOTTEN DEAD

APTER HIROSHIMA

(Sp«>i«uy Written lor "The Pr«M.") (By STEPHEN KELENI

Nine Shims.— Tutaka Torada, care or their earthly remains tor more

When the great atom blast wrecked Hiroshima, part of the P a "^’Sfi ck population took to boats, and fled for refuge to Nino, a small island °ff the Hiroshima coast. They car F*?jJ £ C ves with them. They crawled into caves, aid died there. They wandered and died in the open fields, on mountain slopes, everywhere. Some of. were cremated; others were buried in four different places and forgotten, a most unusual thing in Ja P a S; ancestor-worship is one of the main CU Three hundred of the Jorßotten dead had been buried three fe ® tdeep potato patch near a beach in a fairly desolate part of the island. They were Ivina in good, fertile soil; so when planting tinje came, Nakamoto San, owner of this plot of land without compunction sowed his seeds and har vested well next autumn. ... The Hiroshima City Council recently bought the potato Patch,, dug out the bodies, and, together with 761 others exhumed in other parts of Nino, cremated them, put their ashes in small jars and buried them under a small hillock, raising a “Kyuoto ’—the usual tower-for the repose of ‘he ’mils of the dead. The tower is a 12-foot high wooden pillar with the inscription: •‘Nino Shima Memorial Tower for the Repose of the Hiroshima War Victims Dead.” Eventually it will be replaced by a stone memorial. At the foot of the hillock a provisional altar has been built, Buddhist, and Shinto priests contributing to iv fruit, flowers, candles, incense, and a huge bottle of sake, with other religious articles eustomarily offered to' the deity of a shrine.

The Council’s Purchase In front of the Buddhist-Shinto altar Terada San said: “I saw many sufferers who died in great agony because of the atomic blast, which made our place like hell on earth. But we knew hardly anything about toose who came Shima. When the cruel fate of the remains of people who fled to this island was brought to public knowledge, the Hiroshima City Council approved a bill to purchase the site from Nakamoto San, the owner. We have spent 271,000 yen, all told, to give a proper resting place to the dead and to erect Kyuoto. It took us a month to do the job, which should have been done two years ago. I apologise in the name of the Hiroshima City Council and my bumble self and hope that the souls of the dead at long last will be satisfied. He spoke with great feeling, as n the spirits of the departed were present indeed, listening, making up thett minds to accept the apologies of tins gathering of the living. The spiritual part of the memorial service was arranged by the Hiroshima Religious League, which has members of all religions and sects active in the Chugoku district. A Methodist three Shinto priests, and one Buddhist participated m the ceremonies. In all, about 400 people gathered: Widows, orphans, and other relatives of the atom bomb victims, and representatives of various organisations, officials, priests, and notables. The priests and notables were seated on chairs, the orphans of the atom victims knelt on the ground Japanese fashion, their hair closely cropped. They watched the events bewildered, too young to understand the significance of the ceremonj'. In contrast to them were the widows, standing or sitting on the ground with heads bowed, crying silently. There was nothing here of the legendary Japanese indifference to fate. Their famous slogan. “Shikata ganai”—it can’t be helped—lost all its significance. The air was heavy with grief. Ceremonies Yet. despite the solemn atmosphere mothers were feeding their babies and young children shouted and played in the sand, their parents not interfering. The orphans stole secret glances towards the children who had so much more freedom. They had to stay almost motionless, imitating the grown-ups, bowing when they bowed, sighing when they sighed, looking serious.

The ceremonies started by the unveiling of the “Kyuoto.” A Buddhist priest and two leading citizens from Hiroshima carried a short ladder to the top of the hillock and placed it against the wooden pillar. Climbing to the top, one of them cut the ropes holding the crude rugs fastened to the monument, which was uncovered at last. Then, the pacifying of the souls was begun. The presentation of flowers was followed by speeches and memorial services. A small man, clothed in Occidental style, rose from his place among the

priests and announced: “Ikoda Koshl of the Kanda Shinto Shrine, is the first to perform a commemoration ceremony.” ..... „ . . Surplice-clad Ikoda Koshi, wearing the kammurie. a cone-shaped headdress, and rigidly holding in his right hand the shaku. a ceremonial mace, rose and slowly walked to the altar. There he chanted, calling the Shinto gods to give help to the dead. He and Watanabe Taoru, head-priest of the Temma Shrine, invited the deities .to witness the ceremonies they weae poing to perform. (The Shinto pail theon has no fewer than 8.000.000 godsJ' “Our bodies are just on loan from Sod and when death comes we return lose earthly remains for good keeping and for ever,” said the priest from the Tonrikyo Sect. (This sect teaches that there are eight dusts that can overcast men's minds—desire, grudge, love, hate, regret, anger, greed, and arrogance When a man “dusts off’ all feia "evil intentions" he gains the innocence of a child aiffi the gods will protect him.) After the Shinto priests. Kawani Gitai of the Myorenji Buddhist Temple came to the altar, his crimson robe adorned with golden chrysanthemums. A Buddhist choir of 11 echoed his song-like prayer, the Sutras, Christian and Fann . Then Tamimete Kiyoshi. a Methodist in his simple black clerical robe, with half-closed eyes, read out of the Book of Psalms: “Domine refogimn. Lord, Thou hast been our refuge, from one generation to another. . . . The Japanese minister stood in front at the pagan altar, praying to the Christian God, lamenting man's fate: "As soon as thou scatterest them they are even as a sleep, and fade away suddenly like the grass. The other Christian of the gathering by the name of Sbiro Ota, then sSng the hymn “We Shall Reach the Summer Land." The crowd listened and pnred. Buddhists holding . P*}™ their hands bound by the Buddhiste rosary, others counting the beadg; Christians wept, mumbling the words of the hymn in Japanese, while Shintoists sat or stood with faces expressing

Candles were lit and incense burnt first by the priests, then by leading citizens: “Now all the relatives should come forward and burn incense in honour of the departed.” The ceremony was over, but most of the people stayed on. An elderly woman, clad in black, distributed smafi parcels of fruit. Some of the relatives climbed the narrow tracks to the hills, nn a pilgrimage to the caves where those tftey loved had terribly died. But once more their faces looked indifferent. as if they were ashamed of emotions displayed during the ceremonies. The Dancers The ground before the altar was cleared, and girls with handkerchiefs over their heads lined up to dance the Bon Odori in the style adopted on Nino island, moving in a circle around a drum beaten monotonously by a villager. A man stood in the centre, holding a fan, smiling continuously, as he sang. Truly large is the number of Sicture-horses ana divine dancers, sna le bells of Shinto dancers. The girls were joined in their dance by two men, one of them Nakamoto San, still exuberant over his profitable sale of the old potato patch. The others were gay too, singing and laughing, the grief they had expressed onlv half an hour ago cleared from their faces. Probably they thought it bad manners to behave dismally in the presence of the dead. Facing the memorial tower on the hillside was a stage, its background a crimson and blue screen borrowed from the Itsukushima Shinto Shrine. On the stage Yoshimitsu Yuki, Tsuchiya Yoshio, and Mitsu Yabe performed Japanese classical dances. The three girls are teachers in a Hiroshima dancing school. Two of them belong to the Hayanagi Group, which has a fait reputation in the Hiroshima Prefecture. Mitsu Yabe, to the accompaniment of an old gramophone, danced the Hakata Yobuna, a song appropriate w the dccasion. about a man coming down the River in a boat in the dead of the night.” Another danced the story of a Japanese girl who became the sweetheart of one of Commodore Perry’s sailors, but after he left msrried a Japanese and died in poverty and disillusionment. Then -Miss Kohata danced the Ayoagi, usually performed by girls. The gramophone screeched the song: I am walking along the Road. On two sides weeping willow trees. I see a dark figure in front of me. Whose sweetheart is he? Mine or hers? They kept on dancing for hours, while the crowd gradually left in wooden barges and boats. When the bright autumn sky later dimmed, lone and gaunt againkt the setting sun stood the new monument of Nino Shima—another memento of the destruction war has brought to mankind.